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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Sandown Farmers Showfield?

Last night there was a wide range of topics
discussed at the Suburban Community Council meeting. One item on the agenda was
“Fields in Trust Scotland: securing a grass roots legacy in Nairn.” The FIT charity wishes to
see environmental areas, sports fields and green spaces across Scotland secured for the future. The charity has not had any submissions for its list so far from
the Highland area but have presently received 130 nominations from the rest of Scotland.
Dick revealed he had been talking to Tommy of River CC about the green areas in
their patch and then he ran through some of these essential parts of our local
environment for the benefit of the meeting and included Sandown in his wee presentation.

“I was speaking to the agriculturalists
that have the old Farmers’ Showfield, they are very conscious of the fact that
it is part of Nairn, the football players train there. They’re very keen to
promote it. They’re very conscious of the fact that it is too small for them
and they’ll never use it again. It’s very much a unique feature of Nairn, part
of it could be developed and the greater part could be kept as an asset.
They are thinking along the same lines as well, actually they are quite keen on
perhaps having Sandown as their area as well. That’s another permutation. It
would make an extremely good farmers’ showfield.”

Dick was then asked which field and he
indicated the other side from the proposed Wetlands Park., he continued:

“Because the arrangement at Kinnudie is
very temporary, it’s not a permanent solution at all. They are perhaps going to
end up with not having a site, and that site doesn’t necessary suit the
populace of Nairn, it’s just a little too far to walk although there is a
shuttle run. It would be handy actually having something closer to Nairn. I’m
just relaying the thoughts that are going on.”

This observer believes that securing most
of Sandown as another green lung for a growing town (bypass within the next 20-30
years or not) would be a fantastic step for the benefit of future generations. And
what better way can there be for that than installing a permanent Farmers
Showfield there? On one side of the road would be the wetlands park and on the other the Showfield. Yes, Highland Council would like to sell a lot of it off for housing but if the town would like to have that area as an addition to the existing
green spaces then why not? Bluntly it is ours not Highland Council’s.